Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge

by Audi; Robert

• ISBN13: 9780415281096
• ISBN10: 0415281091
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-23
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This comprehensive book introduces the concepts and theories central for understanding knowledge. It aims to reach students who have already done an introductory philosophy course.Topics covered include perception and reflection as grounds of knowledge, and the nature, structure, and varieties of knowledge. The character and scope of knowledge in the crucial realms of ethics, science and religion are also considered.Unique features of Epistemology :* Provides a comprehensive survey of basic concepts and major theories* Gives an up-to-date account of important developments in the field* Contains many lucid examples to support ideas* Cites key literature in an annotated bibliography.

Author Biography

Robert Audi is the Charles J. Mach University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Table of Contents

Preface to the first edition	ix
Preface to the second edition	xv
Introduction: a sketch of the sources and nature of belief, justification, and knowledge	1	(1)
Perception, belief, and justification	1	(1)
Justification as process, as status, and as property	2	(1)
Knowledge and justification	3	(1)
Memory, introspection, and self-consciousness	4	(1)
Reason and rational reflection	5	(1)
Testimony	5	(1)
Basic sources of belief, justification, and knowledge	6	(1)
Three kinds of grounds of belief	7	(1)
Fallibility and skepticism	8	(1)
Overview	9	(4)
Part One Sources of justification, knowledge, and truth	13	(140)
Perception	15	(40)
The elements and basic kinds of perception	16	(5)
Seeing and believing	21	(9)
Some commonsense views of perception	30	(2)
The theory of appearing	32	(1)
Sense-datum theories of perception	33	(5)
Adverbial theories of perception	38	(3)
Adverbial and sense-datum theories of sensory experience	41	(2)
Phenomenalism	43	(4)
Perception and the senses	47	(8)
Memory	55	(20)
Memory and the past	57	(1)
The causal basis of memory beliefs	58	(2)
Theories of memory	60	(6)
Remembering, recalling, and imaging	66	(1)
Remembering, imaging, and recognition	67	(2)
The epistemological centrality of memory	69	(6)
Consciousness	75	(18)
Two basic kinds of mental properties	76	(2)
Introspection and inward vision	78	(1)
Some theories of introspective consciousness	79	(4)
Consciousness and privileged access	83	(5)
Introspective consciousness as a source of justification and knowledge	88	(5)
Reason	93	(38)
Self-evident truths of reason	94	(2)
The classical view of the truths of reason	96	(9)
The empiricist view of the truths of reason	105	(5)
The conventionalist view of the truths of reason	110	(4)
Some difficulties and strengths of the classical view	114	(5)
Reason, experience, and a priori justification	119	(12)
Testimony	131	(22)
The nature of testimony: formal and informal	132	(1)
The psychology of testimony	133	(4)
The epistemology of testimony	137	(5)
The indispensability of testimonial grounds	142	(11)
Part Two The structure and growth of justification and knowledge	153	(64)
Inference and the extension of knowledge	155	(28)
The process, content, and structure of inference	157	(4)
Inference and the growth of knowledge	161	(3)
Source conditions and transmission conditions for inferential knowledge and justification	164	(3)
The inferential transmission of justification and knowledge	167	(10)
Memorial preservation of inferential justification and inferential knowledge	177	(6)
The architecture of knowledge	183	(34)
Inferential chains and the structure of belief	184	(4)
The epistemic regress problem	188	(4)
The epistemic regress argument	192	(1)
Foundationalism and coherentism	193	(2)
Holistic coherentism	195	(2)
The nature of coherence	197	(3)
Coherence, reason, and experience	200	(6)
Coherence and second-order justification	206	(3)
Moderate foundationalism	209	(8)
Part Three The nature and scope of justification and knowledge	217	(122)
The analysis of knowledge	219	(38)
Knowledge and justified true belief	220	(2)
Knowledge as the right kind of justified true belief	222	(5)
Naturalistic accounts of the concept of knowledge	227	(3)
Problems for reliability theories	230	(5)
Knowledge and justification	235	(3)
Internalism and externalism in epistemology	238	(7)
Justification and truth	245	(5)
Concluding proposals	250	(7)
Scientific, moral, and religious knowledge	257	(34)
Scientific knowledge	258	(9)
Moral knowledge	267	(11)
Religious knowledge	278	(13)
Skepticism	291	(38)
The possibility of pervasive error	292	(3)
Skepticism generalized	295	(5)
The egocentric predicament	300	(1)
Fallibility	301	(3)
Uncertainty	304	(6)
Deducibility, evidential transmission, and induction	310	(3)
The authority of knowledge and the cogency of its grounds	313	(4)
Refutation and rebuttal	317	(1)
Prospects for a positive defense of common sense	318	(5)
Skepticism and common sense	323	(6)
Conclusion	329	(10)
Short annotated bibliography of books in epistemology	339	(8)
Index	347